2merkato

Ethiopia is to begin the export of Damask Oil, an essential oil extracted from Rosa Damascena (a type of rose) beginning in August of 2012. The oil will be exported by Terra plc to Germany, to a company called Walla Gmbh.

Damask Oil used for its medicinal and cosmetic benefits can fetch as much as 7500 US dollars a liter.

Terra, owned and managed by German investor Dr. Awad Ghanem has began a trial production of the rose with 532 seedlings supplied by GTZ. The company currently has 35 thousand seedlings said Wogderes Negash, Manager of the farm found in Debre Berhan.

Ethiopia has earned more than 368 million US dollars from the sale of traditionally mined gold in the first ten months of the current Ethiopia financial year according to the Ministry of Mines.

The revenue was earned by an estimated 6700 kilograms of gold supplied to the National Bank of Ethiopia said Bacha Fuji, Director of Public Relations with the Ministry.

The revenue earned this reporting period has increased by more than 125.1 million US dollars in comparison to the revenue earned during the same period last year he said.

Ethiopia fixed the price of cotton at 29 birr to 32 birr a kilogram to allow cotton growers to dispose of accumulated stock estimated at 106,000 tons.

The price was fixed by a committee of cotton and textile industry players with government oversight. The committee met with Tadesse Haile, State Minister for Industry and included representatives of textile manufacturers, the Ethiopian Textile Development Institute and cotton growers.

Ethiopia save an estimated 20 million US dollars on oil imports by blending more than 32.8 million liters of ethanol with benzene said the Ministry of Water and Energy.

A major percentage of the ethanol produced within the country in this financial year was used for blending with Benzene according to Bizuneh Tolcha, Director of the Public Relations and Communications Directorate of the ministry.

The percentage of ethanol to benzene in the blending process has been increased from just 5% three years ago to 10% in the last year allowing Ethiopia to save more than 20 million IS dollars on oil imports said Bizuneh.